Agra, India - Red Fort and Taj Mahal again

After spending a few hours at the Taj Mahal in the morning, we had a cup of coffee and then headed over to the Red Fort of Agra. The Mughal emperors Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb all lived here. It was originally a brick fort and has been around as early as 1080AD. When Akbar decided to make Agra the capital, he had it rebuilt from ruins with red sandstone. It was completed in 1573 after well over one million builders worked on it for eight years. It was also where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb, for the last seven years of his life - with a view out the window of the Taj Mahal he had built for his wife.

After exploring the Agra Fort, we ate lunch. Here's where we had lunch, looking down the street in both directions:

As we walked back to the car, I saw a bull walking toward us and decided to take a photo of my friends walking by the bull. Here's the bull:

Apparently, the bull did not appreciate this because when I walked by, he rammed me with his horns - hitting me first on the bum and then bruising my elbow. That'll teach me to photograph camera-shy bulls, huh?

We also saw a barber on the way back to the car. You can't tell very well from the photos, but the barber's shirt was metallic silver.

Here's what the street looked like where we were supposed to meet the driver:

Here it is with motion and sound:

Yeah....and we crossed that street. We didn't find the driver for some time, but we eventually did and decided to end our day across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal to watch the sunset. We walked along a fence on a small dirt road that ended at a gate on the shore of the river. A few other people were already there and several children were selling postcards. It ended up being a great place to watch children bringing in their goats, women carrying bundles of sticks on their heads, and of course, the sunset and the Taj Mahal.

Here's the boy we bought our postcards from:

He was a pretty clever little salesman - speaking a few words of several languages and laying on the charm.

More photos at flickr.

--Sarah--

Agra, India - Sikandra and the Taj Mahal

We left Delhi and drove to Agra. On the way we stopped to visit Sikandra - the Tomb of Akbar the Great. It was built between 1605-1612. It is massive with red sandstone and white marble.

Seeing women dressed in their brightly colored saris against this background was beautiful.

The sandstone latticework on the windows was amazing.

On the walls were carved floral patterns or geometric shapes.

Under one dome were large bee hives. We saw these bee hives a few times during our whole trip. We also saw some sort of antelope eating the grass in the gardens surrounding the area.

In Agra, we dropped our stuff at our hotel and headed down the street to see the Taj Mahal. We were literally down the street - maybe a 3 minute walk... if you were strolling. Walking anywhere invited bicycle rickshaw drivers to offer rides. They wouldn't believe that we just wanted to walk. We walked down the side of the road next to the wall around the Taj Mahal and came to a fork. A rickshaw driver told us we should take the left fork, which looked like a dirt road to nowhere, and he would take us there. After negotiating the price, and having a flutter of a feeling of where the heck is he really going to take us but not worrying too much since we could easily jump off the bike, we got on. I whispered to Carol, "You know, it is getting dark. Hopefully, he is not taking us somewhere his friends are all waiting." She responded, "He's pretty skinny. We could take 'em."

He ended up taking us to some steps that led into the Yamuna River where we could see the back of the Taj Mahal and the sun was setting. And we were nearly the only people there! We stayed and took heaps of photos as the sun set. Absolutely stunning! Thanks rickshaw man!

We returned to our hotel to wait for two other travelers to join us. Our hotel had a nice outdoor patio and a decent restaurant. I asked, "Does the butter chicken have bones?" The waiter answered, "No boneless." But I thought he had said, "No, boneless." What a difference that comma makes, eh? Our friends' train had been due in at 6pm and it was nearly 8pm. After chatting to a couple, they mentioned that there was another hotel up the road with nearly the same name - were we supposed to be meeting them at the hotel or the inn? Just as Carol got up to go look for them, they arrived.

The next morning, we woke up early to be the first in line for the Taj Mahal, but found out we had to go down the street to get the tickets, so we ended up being maybe the 20th or so.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during the birth of their fourteenth child. Construction began in 1632 and continued for sixteen years. The gardens and surrounding area took another five years. I think we each took multiple pictures of the Taj Mahal from various angles.

In this photo, you can get an idea of how huge this building is. I was standing in about the center of the smaller arches on the right at the front of the Taj Mahal looking toward a tower.

As always, people-watching occurred even with this magnificent building nearby. Here's a woman at the Taj Mahal with her baby:

Here's a monk taking a picture of his monk friend pretending to hold the tip top of the Taj Mahal. (Apparently I deleted the picture I had with the angle showing him touching it. Oh well, I guess I will have to go back to the Taj Mahal again.)

You take off your shoes before you walk on the Taj Mahal and the marble is smooth and cool beneath your feet. I imagine it is always cool, even in the hot Indian summers. At the time of visiting this beautiful place, I was reading the book Beneath a Marble Sky, by John Shors. It is a work of historical fiction but I wish every word to be true. It was a fantastic story and made my visit to the Taj Mahal that much better.

Of course, more photos at flickr.

--Sarah--

Delhi - Beginning of 3 Weeks in India

I met up with Carol, my main traveling partner for this trip, at the airport in Beijing to head to Delhi. Connections to another international school teacher made it possible for us to stay in an apartment at the American Embassy School for free so our trip began on the more frugal side. We arrived in Delhi in the wee hours of the morning and were happily surprised to see one of the drivers holding a sign with Carol's name on it. Our driver, Rattan, picked us up (4am) and took us to our home away from home at the AES. We caught a few hours of sleep before getting ready and meeting Rattan at noon.

Our first stop was to the Sansad Shavan, the Parliament House, which is a circular, colonnaded structure 171m in diameter. We also saw Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President's house. Completed in 1929, it has 320 rooms and once employed 50 boys just to chase the birds away in the gardens.

Down the street is the India Gate. This 42m high stone memorial arch pays tribute to the 90,000 Indian army soldiers who died in WWI, the Northwest Frontier operations at the same time, and the 1919 Afghan War.

Next, we headed over to the Red Fort. We were told that this one is not as good as the one in Agra, but we hadn't seen that one yet, so we were amazed. This was Emperor Shah Jahan's sandstone fort which was built between 1638 and 1648. It used to have wooden drawbridges to cross the moat, but they were replaced with stone in 1811. There hasn't been any water in the moat for nearly 200 years.

We took a rickshaw from the Red Fort to Jama Masjid. This is an easily walkable distance, but having a driver, we hadn't taken a cycle rickshaw in India yet, so we decided to have that experience. Fun, but be sure to keep your arms and legs inside. Failure to do so may give you an experience that you would prefer not to have.

At the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, we removed our shoes and donned bright pink with white polka dot robes to make us more presentable.

We seemed to attract quite a bit of attention and had followers, photographers, little kids asking the time, and starers the entire time we were there.

We were not allowed to climb the southern minaret, 40m high, until we found a male escort. Luckily, and by chance, we ran into another teacher who was also staying at the AES apartment. He traveled alone through India for the same time as us. From the top of the minaret, we were able to have a great view of the city.

They began construction on the Jama Masjid under Emperor Shah Jahan in 1644 and it was completed in 1658. It is made of bands of red sandstone and white marble. The courtyard can hold 25,000 people. In the courtyard was the small pool where people do their cleansing. This was a great people watching area - both for us and of us.

After the mosque, we visited Raj Ghat where black marble marks the spot where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated after his assassination in 1948. Surrounding the marble are gardens.

Dinner of dosas satiated us before we headed back to the apartment.

More photos at flickr.

--Sarah--

Winter Party 2009

My school held its annual winter party at a hotel near the Olympic area at the beginning of December.

One third grade teacher always makes lots of jello shots and brings them to the party. This year, the school sponsored him so we had plenty of jello shots in addition to the beer, wine, and champagne.

Yes, the teachers and staff at my school know how to have a good time. There was plenty of dancing and even some limbo!

Here I am with a friend, Annie. She's new this year and gave me lots of tips on places to see in India since that is where she worked before coming to Beijing.

--Sarah--